Thursday 10 July 2025

Honourable Speaker,

Honourable Members,

Distinguished Guests,

Fellow South Africans,

With a heavy heart I would like to extend my sincere condolences to Mabuza’s family and Republic of South Africa on the passing of former Deputy President Hon David Dabede Mabuza.

Hon Speaker, Electricity and Energy like water and transport are the key drivers of economic growth and job creation. Over the recent years there have been many challenges facing the electricity and energy sector which negatively affected inclusive economic growth and job creation. Therefore, the importance of the Ministry and Department of Electricity and Energy operating independently of Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, as this enables focus on the electricity and energy sectors. This Budget Vote and its programmes are critical to ensuring security of supply of electricity and energy.

South Africa has a large electricity demand by African standards and the economy is energy intensive. The peak electricity demand in the country is 35 665MW with the country having an installed capacity of 48 521MW and supply capacity of 32 246 MW. In the past; 90% of electricity has been generated from coal fired power plants and this has been reduced to 80% given the shift to green renewable energy.

This large electricity demand cannot be met through a single energy carrier even though the bulk of the country’s demand is met through coal. The country also generates smaller volumes of electricity from hydroelectric and Nuclear and more recently through Independent Power Producers generating power through renewable energy. Eskom, created as a natural monopoly, supplies the base load of electricity demand and will continue doing so for a long time.      

However, in the recent past, the country was afflicted by load shedding caused through corruption, malfeasance and incompetence with the new build in the form of Medupi and Kusile as well as a lack of maintenance of the coal plants which saw a decline in the Energy Availability Factor to an all-time low of 48%.

In 2023 the country reached its peak for the number of days with load shedding in South Africa which was 332 days. This was a record for the country and significantly higher than the 205 days experienced in 2022. The ANC Government at the time introduced a programme to reverse the effects of load shedding. Eskom itself introduced a plan to enhance maintenance of the power plants and fix the defects in the new build programme which was financed from its own revenue to the value of 20 billion Rand per annum.

The Government plan for fixing Eskom and the maintenance plan of power stations and the fixing of the defects of Medupi and Kusile as well as re-furbishing Koeberg has started to bare fruits with the Energy Availability factor increasing to 68%. This means that generation capacity has increased and this has also been greatly assisted with the development of the Green Energy sector as Independent Power Producer’s supply 6000 megawatts into the transmission grid. This has resulted in the country having suspended load shedding for more than 9 months with reduced diesel usage in peaking plants

*And this highlights the importance of this budget vote and the implementation of the programmes of the Department and its entities.

It is important that the Department continues with the Integrated National Electrification programme. Hon Speaker this programme has been a success story since 1994 as it sought to provide especially African households with electricity supply to correct the historical injustices of the past. In this financial year 96% of households will be electrified with the remainder requiring off-grid solutions due to the fact that the grid is ineffective in those areas for transmission.  

The expansion of generation capacity by Eskom and IPP renewable energy requires the restructuring and development of both transmission and distribution infrastructure. This will facilitate IPP generated power to be brought to market.

The finalisation of the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) 2025 is a paramount undertaking. This plan will provide a clear roadmap for our electricity generation mix over the next decade and beyond. It will guide our investments and policy decisions, ensuring a balanced and sustainable energy future.

Programme 2, as part of green energy solutions and the expansion of the base load supply of electricity, finalisation of the Gas Master Plan ensuring cooperation between Electricity and Energy with Mineral and Petroleum Resources due to overlapping mandates.

Hon Speaker this budget vote is about more than just megawatts and tariffs; it is about powering our economic recovery and increasing our nation’s economic capacity. Our aim as the ANC is not to merely end load shedding but increase generation capacity to ensure implementation of Medium Term Development Plan. The projected electricity demand for the country in 2030 will surely reach 77 000 MW which requires a careful planning and development.

Hon Speaker, the ANC supports this Budget Vote.

I Thank You